Britons To Be Watched By Autonomous Hovering Police Drones

That Britain suffers from rampant anomie, concealed by low murder rates, is arguable. That the place is becoming a police state isn’t. The last laughable “measure” to be seen there was CCTV cameras which issue orders to passers-by. The next will be hovering drones, fitted with cameras, speakers and microphones, to hum around the streets, looking for criminals.

This isn’t just a knock-eyed notion out of a some fascist think-tank, either: the first such civilian-surveillance drone will be deployed next week for a 12-week trial in Liverpool.

In essence, it’s a Half-Life 2-style Manhack without the armored blades. The meter-wide device can hover up to 500m up, and is equipped with IR to gather evidence at all hours of night and day. They are completely autonomous, but operators can patch in to take manual control.